In an eleventh-hour attempt to make it over a fundraising hump, The Art of Cool Music Festival has teamed up with one of R&B’s consummate soul crooners, Anthony Hamilton, for a special video announcement regarding the second Art of Cool Music Fest, due next April 24–26. If the Kickstarter campaign reaches its $35,000 goal, Hamilton […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
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Hopscotch, Night Three: Sound and spectacle
The Curious Case of Button-Pushers The last night of Hopscotch 2014 brimmed with acts who mistook—and at times, benefitted from—spectacle instead of quality. Take this tweet by WXDU 88.7 FM DJ Zachary Lechner: “Holygrailers slaying via laptop at Pour House.” The observation isn’t just an exaggeration; it’s just wrong. In the colloquial sense, Holygrailers didn’t […]
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Hopscotch, Night Two: Wheelies, mysteries and bad jokes
Years from now, when many of us are reminiscing about Hopscotch’s heyday, we might remember this year as the year when St. Vincent’s celestial guitarist singer Annie Clark turned the City Plaza stage into a scintillating, art-rock vessel. But what about Raleigh cyclist, Rodney Hines, the self-proclaimed No Hand King, whose claim to fame is […]
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The Richest Ones in Raleigh: Eric Tullis on Hopscotch 2014, Night One
1. The Rapper Who Desires a Cult In 2012, when I interviewed Charlotte’s self-proclaimed “cult rapper” Deniro Farrar, his main concern was that he’d come off as “stupid.” That was back when he cared entirely too much about appearances and public perception; he hadn’t yet crafted the “cult rapper” persona that’s powered his recent wave. […]
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2014 DURM Hip-Hop Summit yields mixed results
On most days, The Bullpen—a brightly lit co-working space in the basement of Durham’s American Underground—is dotted with the city’s resident idea people: solo-entrepreneurs, start-up employees, ostensible creatives. But on Saturday afternoon, the VIP ticket holders of the second DURM Hip-Hop Summit commandeered the space to view an opening exhibition of tap- and breakdancing alongside […]
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Live: Eric Roberson and Algebra Blessett learn the Art of Cool
Eric Roberson, Algebra Blessett Motorco, Durham Sunday, July 27, 2014 The Triangle’s recent two-week spate of live music has been one of a sublimely interlinked set of unrelated acts, each under the protective nimbus of soul music. It all began on July 17 at downtown Raleigh’s Red Hat Ampitheater with legendary R&B man-band, New Edition. […]
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Fluent’s Supreme Victory
Nearly a decade ago, the Chapel Hill-via-Cincinnati emcee Aaron Russell went by the rap name Young Fluent. The juvenile handle fit his position as the sidekick and friend of Chapel Hill hip-hop veteran and once-relentless rap underdog, Kaze. They were an inseparable pair, with Young Fluent thriving on Kaze’s confidence, even if he lacked the […]
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Live: J. Cole drops double “Dollar and a Dream” shows on Raleigh
J. Cole Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh Saturday, July 19, 2014 In early July, the Fayetteville-bred Roc Nation emcee and producer J. Cole announced that he would be bringing his second-annual “Dollar & a Dream Tour” to a “secret location” in Raleigh on Saturday, celebrating the five-year anniversary of his breakthrough The Warm Up mixtape. Narrowing the […]
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Live: The misunderestimation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh Sunday, July 20, 2014 Maybe you were one of the many Lauryn Hill disciples who punked out and exited her Sunday evening concert at Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater as soon as the rainfall upgraded from a soft drizzle into a brief downpour. Or maybe you were that guy, who, […]
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Raleigh rapper King Mez hopes to turn new alliances into a bona fide career
Every weekday at noon, the august voice of Frank Stasio welcomes listeners to The State of Things, a public radio exploration of salient regional topics and compelling cultural events. Most weeks, Stasio invites a band into the studio, too, perhaps an upcoming indie rock outfit or an affable area string band. But in early May, […]